Hal Willner resources

Hal Willner resources on the Web

[Pic] Born Philadelphia 1957

[Half the references to Hal Willner on the Web spell it Wilner.]

New free MP3: Nader with beats

NEW: Superb interview: http://www.ink19.com/issues_F/98_02/ink_spots/hal_willner_nf.html

My first introduction to Hal Willner happened in the middle of the night in the middle of the Eighties, listening to Northwestern's WNUR radio station. They were playing an instrumental track that turned out to be a Thelonius Monk composition called "Work" played brilliantly by Chris Spedding and (!) Peter Frampton, off a tribute album for Monk called "That's The Way I Feel Now" ...produced by Hal Willner.

I phoned my friend Brad who has an impeccable music library and asked could he tape the album for me, and over the next few years I wore that tape clean. Along with Kate Bush's The Dreaming, it seems to me the most powerful music ever recorded...

The roster of musicians he used was wild: Bruce Fowler, NRBQ, Donald Fagen, Steve Kahn, Dr. John, Carla Bley Band, Joe Jackson, Bobby McFerrin, Steve Lacy, Todd Rundgren, John Zorn, Terry Adams, Shockabilly, Brilliant Corners, Was (Not Was), Sharon Freeman, Chris Spedding, and Peter Frampton. (As a general rule, I assume that any artist who's worked with Willner must be at the top of their craft.)

Track list: http://www.c-and-c.si/sco/d145.htm

Many of these were associated with a hip NYC experimental-jazz club called the Knitting Factory, whom Willner helped to get their first record contract: http://www.knittingfactory.com/Anniversary/History/007.html

Here's a collector selling the Monk LP for $15: http://www.vinyllives.com/jazz.html

The Monk tribute was 1984, three years after a now-out-of-print tribute to Fellini's wonderful collaborator Nino Rota, called "Amarcord". Those tunes are bubbly but forgettable, imho, except for a haunting appearance by Debbie Harry.

1988 brought a tribute to Disney film tunes, "Stay Awake". Willner's liner notes apologise that after signing on to the project he discovered that most of his favorites had only a single verse, so he was forced to turn many of them into medleys. Compared to some of his other projects, this album is lighter weight, which may be why it gets more airplay! Artists include: Herb Alpert, Betty Carter, Garth Hudson, Dr. John, Los Lobos, Natalie Merchant, Aaron Neville, Harry Nilsson, Ken Nordine, NRBQ, Sinead O'Connor, Buster Poindexter, Sun Ra, Bonnie Raitt, The Replacements, The Roches, Ringo Starr, Michael Stipe, Syd Straw, Yma Sumac, James Taylor, Suzanne Vega, Tom Waits, and Was (Not Was).

Stay Awake fanpage: http://theband.hiof.no/albums/stay_awake.html

Amazon page

Next was "Lost in the Stars", a devastatingly harrowing Kurt Weill tribute. (For me, Sting's track on the Weill CD is so weak I wonder if Willner isn't making fun of him...?) This was reworked entirely for TV as a brilliant special called "September Songs". Album artists include: Sting, Dominic Muldowney, Fowler Brothers, Stanard Ridgway, Marianne Faithfull, Chris Spedding, Van Dyke Parks, Armadillo String Quartet, John Zorn, Lou Reed, Carla Bley, Tom Waits, Dagmar Krause, Aaron Neville, and Todd Rundgren.

Amazon pages: Lost in the Stars, September Songs

Tom Waits' praises HW: http://www.officialtomwaits.com/noframe/i_face.htm

a producer who "lets things happen and knows when to back off "

Almost a tracklist? http://www.kazu.org/weill.html
September Songs page: http://www.zephyr.net/users/cave/info/covers/mtk.html
Official page w/samples: http://www.sonyclassical.com/releases/63046.htm
Review w/Nick Cave sample: http://www.freep.com/fun/sj/090797.4.htm

1990: Carl Stalling's Warner Bros. cartoon tunes (sequel, 1995)

1992 brought "Weird Nightmare", a Charlie Mingus tribute (but nothing at all like Joni Mitchell's superb 1979 Mingus collaboration). Performers included: Elvis Costello, Robbie Robertson, Bill Frisell, Ray Davies, Keith Richards, Hubert Selby Jr., Charlie Watts, Henry Rollins, Diamanda Galas, and Henry Threadgill. Most memorable was the use of several very strange musical instruments created by Harry Partch, and a risky use of spoken word from Mingus's autobiography. This was followed up with another Mingus compilation in 1993.

Amazon page

A Weird Nightmare fanpage (where I cribbed the picture above): http://inferno.asap.um.maine.edu/emp/les/willner.html

Another: http://www.diamandagalas.com/weird.htm

Another: http://theband.hiof.no/albums/weird_nightmares.html

Most recently, Willner's been occupied with film collaborations with Robert Altman:

Short Cuts (1993) "acclaimed modern jazz soundtrack" for Robert Altman film. Performers include: Lori Singer, Annie Ross, Iggy Pop, Michael Stipe.

Kansas City (1996) another Altman soundtrack, with 40s jazz. Reviewed here: http//musiccentral.msn.com/Album/Display/70288

Closed on Account of Rabies (Edgar Allen Poe readings)

Samples/interview clips: http://www.polygram-us.com/mondo/poe/interview.html

Reviews: http://www2.salonmagazine.com/music/sharps/1997/12/04sharps.html http://www.flowonline.com/archives98/apr98_articles/JV-poe.htm http://www.diamandagalas.com/rabies0498.html http://www.bayarea.net/~floor13/music/review4.htm http://www.mouthalmighty.com/poe1.htm http://www.brainwashed.com/diamanda/inter/review/noise0398.html

Music Central discography for Willner (incomplete): http://musiccentral.msn.com/Artist/Display/501205

Production credits for: William S. Burroughs (1990, 1993), Allen Ginsberg (1994, 1997), Marianne Faithfull (1990, 1995), Gavin Friday (1989, 1992), Lori Carson (1990), David Sanborn (1991), Joe Piscopo?!? (1992), Jazz Passengers (1994), and Spanish Fly (1994).

Ginsberg mentions HW: http://www2.smart.net/~fi/patti/bio/ginsint.htm

HW praises Spanish Fly: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/03.13.97/spanish-fly-9711.html

IMDB movie/tv credits:

- Kansas City (1996, dir. Robert Altman) (music producer)
- Jazz '34 (1996) (music production)
... aka Robert Altman's Jazz '34
- Short Cuts (1993, dir. Robert Altman) (music producer)
- Junky's Christmas, The (1993) (composer)
- Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (1993) (TV) (composer)
- Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988) (music co-ordinator)
- Heavy Petting (1988) (music producer)
- Candy Mountain (1987) (music producer)
- Heaven (1987, dir. Diane Keaton) (music producer)
- Duxorcist, The (1987) (composer)

IMDB Willner bio

Willner has also recently worked as a staff music producer at Saturday Night Live for several years, and he was music producer for 20 episodes of the innovative music series Night Music with David Sanborn in 1989-90.

More recently (via Sidewalk NYC):

His 1995 Edgar Allan Poe readings at St. Ann's in Brooklyn led to the album Closed on Account of Rabies, with Christopher Walken, Iggy Pop, Jeff Buckley and Debbie Harry.

For Halloween 1998, Willner produced an event dedicated to Marquis de Sade's Philosophy of the Bedroom, Juliette, 120 Days of Sodom and Justine. On the roster were Diamanda Galas, actresses Lili Taylor (Pecker, I Shot Andy Warhol) and Chloe Webb (Sid & Nancy, Tales of the City) as well as Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan. Music deejayed by Eric "son of Charles" Mingus and Karen "daughter of Carla Bley" Mantler. Another Willner production on Halloween was part two of his Poe readings, featuring Steve Buscemi, Colin Quinn and John Cale.

Harry Smith Project: http://nme.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19990622131828reviews.html

Tim Buckley tribute: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~bodoin/tbtrib.html

Knitting Factory's CyberSeder: http://www.jewmu.com/cyberseder/Main.html

Short bio: http://www.polygram-us.com/mondo/poe/willner.html

Hal's forthcoming projects include a six-CD set of the work of Lenny Bruce (set for release in the spring of 1998 by Rhino Records), a series of spoken word/music CDs for Mouth Almighty (titles in '98 to include efforts by Bob Holman and Kathy Acker, and a Terry Southern record called "Give Me Your Hump!"), a sequel soundtrack to the "Kansas City" film, and sundry others consistent with Hal's twisted and exhilarating aesthetic. Asked recently to consider making an album of his own, Hal is even now dreaming up the outlines of a project whose working title is "Whoops, I'm an Indian!"

Whoops review and samples; backgrounder; Amazon page

Frequent collaborators:

Carla Bley bio: http://www.ejn.it/mus/c_bley.htm
John Zorn discography: http://www.acns.nwu.edu/jazz/artists/zorn.john/discog.html
NRBQ: http://www.supfina-usa.com/~ceol/history.html

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